“It was boring! Boring, how could it be anything else? You can’t see out from the bottom of a canyon.” — Federal Bureau of Reclamation Floyd Dominy recounting his raft trip down the Colorado with Sierra Club president David Brower, “Floyd Dominy, the colossus of dams, dies at 100,” High Country News, April 23, 2010

Drought, in other words, takes on something of the character of the society it keeps. If that society lives on the edge, then drought shows up as the grim reaper. — Commentary by Ed Firmage, Jr, photographer in residence at Zion National Park, “Will we be ready when drought comes to stay?” Salt Lake Tribune, April 23, 2010

“For the last 10 years, it’s just been chasing water.” — Jim Holland, park planner for Lake Mead, “Overton Beach to close Sunday,” Las Vegas Review-Journal, April 24, 2010

The projected price of water could be between $15,000 to $20,000 per acre-foot at the high end of the scale. — Aaron Million, “Lower Ark hears pipeline pitch,” Pueblo Chieftan, April 22, 2010

“I will be issuing a directive to our … crews to cease discharging our recycled water into the San Antonio River. After the spanking that the San Antonio Spurs put on Mark Cuban’s Mavericks tonight, Cuban’s tears are enough to keep the flow going down to the Gulf.” — Robert Puente, president and CEO of San Antonio Water System, “A message on water Cuban can take to Dallas,” San Antonio Express-News, April 23, 2010

We flush them down our toilets
We wash ‘em down the drain
We take ‘em when we feel bad
We take ‘em for the pain

The Disneynature 2010 adaptation of the 2009 French film Oceans was released on Earth Day, April 22. Click on the Asian sheepshead wrasse for the New York Times review.

Mexico City is sinking at between a few inches and six feet a year depending on who you believe. — “Mexico City’s water crisis,” Al Jazeera, April 22, 2010

“It’s mathematically impossible to double food production while still using the same percentage of water.” — Mogens Bay of Valmont Industries; Valmont’s founder, Robert Daugherty, donated $50m for a Water for Food Institute at the University of Nebraska, “NU makes big splash in Water Policy,” Omaha World-Herald, April 21, 2010

*From the previous week. Emily Green is on assignment. ‘The Week that was’ will return as time allows.